Now I know that most of you know my stance on Madden, and how it is just a money grab every year, but this article is not about that at all. In Jacksonville, FL a satellite tournament, sanctioned by EA, was being held to showcase some of the top Madden players in the Southeast. During this tournament an individual, later identified as David Katz, having lost his match earlier apparently went to his car, removed his handgun from said car, and then walked back into where the tournament was being held and opened fire. From my understanding there were three fatalities, one being the shooter, as well as at least nine injured. The nine that were injured had a wide range of injuries from multiple gunshots to the torso to a gunshot to the thumb.

This shooting was literally heard around the world as the tournament was being streamed via Twitch.tv and even though you do not see the shooter or those being shot you can hear all that transpired. If you have the stomach for it you can go to this link to see/listen to the video.

Now I know that many out there will be rallying for gun control, but lets really look at the more likely of suspects and that is metal health. This individual, after losing a video game, decided that his only course of action was to go to his car, retrieve his gun, and then shoot as many people as he could. This is not the thought process of a mentally healthy individual. I also really, really, REALLY don't want to get into the "video games promote violence" screaming match. This was a simulation football video game, its been around since 1988, and it allows for gamers to play as their favorite football players.

Let's focus on the families, friends, loved ones, that were affected by this act of violence. Right now I think that that's where our focus should be on. There are two families that lost their children, and many others who have loved ones in the hospital, some requiring surgery.

I think deep down I've always been a fan of the 2D side scrolling action that can be found in games such as Castlevania and Metriod, and of course those type of games fall under the genre of "Metroidvania". So it comes as no big surprise when I decided to jump into CHASM, which is absolutely a Metroidvania style game that I was going to be hooked.

You will play the role of a squire trying to become a knight who is given the task of checking up on a small town that is complaining that there is some strange beast scaring miners. The last time the beast just turned out to be some wolves, so how hard could this task be? I think you know where this story is going to go from here, but just in case let’s just say that there's a lot more going on in the mines then just some wild animals.

You will journey through several different areas, all hidden underground, all with their own unique feel and music, and all of them utilizing a lot of the same structure to the layout. When we're talking layout I'd like to put most of the emphasis on the vertical rooms, like Metroid and Castlevania, these rooms are just tall rooms with many platforms to jump to and contain paths to several rooms. In other words these are the transition rooms.

So let’s get a little bit more into the gameplay pieces. You'll be utilizing some sort of melee weapon throughout the game, each with their pluses and minuses. Some weapons can hand out SEVERE damage, but are really slow, while other weapons hand out small amounts of damage but are lightning quick. The weapon/weapon type is up to the player.

There's also the "spells" in the game, and I put spells in quotation marks because in my mind what these "spells" are don't match up to what I think of as spells. You'll gain the ability to throw a magic boomerang, throw a magic dagger, or throw a magic Molotov cocktail. When I think spells I'm envisioning fireballs, lightning, or a freeze spell. To be honest the spells portion of the game I rarely used, it really felt limited, I would have rather just had a bow and arrow because I tend to utilize spells for long range, but these don't have all that much range.

Next on the list of features has to be the artifacts, or those items that give you an additional ability that you previously didn't have. In the game you're going to gain the ability to grip ledges, push jump off walls, deploy a parachute (which will only deploy once per fall, so make sure you hold that button down), and perform a double jump. There is one "weapon" that I would have loved to have seen as an artifact and that is the shovel that you use to dig the soft ground areas on the floor to get to treasure chests. The way you have to do it in the game is that you have to go into your player menu, select equipment and equip the shovel, which you will use for all of a minute, then hopefully you don't forget to switch back to your real weapon, if you don't you're not going to have a lot of fun against enemies.

Without giving away too much of the game I do want to point out that this game did do a good job of opening up the game piece by piece. As you explore further and further underground you're going to run into town residents that have been locked away. Each of these NPCs (Non-Player Characters) will give you new features in town, such as the blacksmith that will sell you equipment or create equipment, as long as you have the correct ingredients, another example is the witch who grants you the ability to purchase "spells" as well as upgrade them to up the damage they can cause.

This is definitely a game that if you're a Metroidvania fan, you have to play. I seriously locked into this game and only wanted to play this game until completion, did I make some mistakes in the game, YUP, did I get frustrated when I tried to grip the ledge but the game decided I wanted to push jump instead, YUP, did I not rescue every citizen of the town, YUP, but at the end of the day the game was fun, it was enjoyable, and I highly recommend it to any and all.

Charlie and Zealeus take to the interwebs filled with 0s and 1s. This week they talk about many a topics that you the audience have provided them with:

1. Nintendo Starts to Sue ROM hosting Sites - Emulators - Is there an alternative to play some of those long forgotten titles?2. Microsoft Talks a New XBOX emphasis on Streaming - What issues could happen? - Latency, will it be an issue?3. "This Dumbass Doesn't Even Know How to Play this Game" - A dangerous mindset - What is your definition of success?